In my next apartment, I’m dreaming of having a second bedroom to function as a guest room/home office/room to display all my nerdy treasures. I pulled together a board to see what it would all look like. I hesitate to call this a design, since it is so basic. Mostly I just shopped Ikea’s website. However, it is interesting to compare what I ultimately ended up choosing vs what I pinned originally. My home office pins were all over the place stylistically. But when it came time to create something coherent, I took a step back and just simplified, simplified, simplified. I guess that’s the difference between designing a room so that the furniture is the focal point and designing a room where the art and accessories are the focus. Obviously great designers manage to do both, but for lay people like me, it seems better to just focus on one or the other. My goal for this room was to have a solid foundation in terms of furnishings and to make sure that the nerd stuff stays the star of the show, without being overwhelming. Time will tell if this is a winning combination or not!

The pouf is probably unnecessary for most people, but I’m so short, I need a place to prop my feet up. Where better than a soft furry pouf? I figured the dresser could do double duty as both a filing cabinet and a place for guests to stash their clothes (side note: does anyone actually use the dressers in hotels or at other people’s homes? I hang stuff up, but I rarely put my clothes away in drawers. Am I just super lazy and/or uncivilized?). I envision the shelves flanking the bed and pushed up against a wall, with the nightstand and lamp tucked under the bed when there are no guests. But of course, this is all hypothetical.

Does $1300 seem like a lot for such a basic room? Of course, a lot of Ikea furniture can be found much cheaper on Craigslist, and they do have cheaper options for pretty much everything up there. Mentally, I feel like the total should be under 1k. And that’s what my wallet thinks too.

I’m looking forward to being able to put this plan into action…someday!